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“God intended marriage for the mutual society, help and comfort that the one ought to have of the other both in prosperity and adversity.”

Book of Common Prayer

How do I believe Bathsheba may have felt when David “fetched” her to the palace after the death of her husband, Uriah?

What are some of the expectations I have of marriage?

“The marital love is a thing pure as light, sacred as a temple, lasting as the world.”
Jeremy Taylor

INSPIRATION

“Be the mate God designed you to be.”
Anthony T. Evans

She was a grieving widow. Having found out that her husband, Uriah, had been killed in battle, the pregnant Bathsheba was left alone to contemplate her future and that of her unborn child. The Bible doesn’t give us an idea of what communication, if any, there was between David and Bathsheba after the death of Uriah.

The only information we find contained in our study text for today, II Samuel 11: 27, is that David, “sent and fetched her (Bathsheba).”

I don’t know about you but the phrase “sent and fetched” doesn’t sound very romantic to me. It sounds a little like a game my husband plays with our miniature dachshund, Ethel, called “Go Fetch.” Ethel has some soft toys and she loves nothing more than for my Jim to toss them and then she “goes and fetches” the item and brings it back so “Dad” can throw the toy again.

Frankly, seeing the word “fetch” used in relationship to Bathsheba’s return to David’s palace really peaked my curiosity, so I went to my Hebrew dictionary where I found two interesting pieces of information. First, I looked at the Hebrew meaning of the word, “sent.” The word “sent,” used in our text today, is the very same form of the word which was used when David “sent” for Bathsheba after he had “seen” her and “desired” her. This form of the word “sent” can be used in the same way as one might “go forth” to “grasp” something within their reach. Next, I looked up the word, “fetched,” which in Hebrew means, “to gather for any purpose, to remove, to take utterly away, to bring, to take again.”

I find it interesting that the particular Hebrew form of the word used for “fetched” in II Samuel 11: 27, is used only once in the Old Testament. When this word, “fetched,” is used in other places in Scripture, it is not taken from the same Hebrew root. What makes this word so unique, as I read the definition, is that there is a reference to “taking something away, again.” It is details like this in the Bible which give me such great confidence in God’s word. Even the form of the Hebrew word “fetched,” denotes that this wasn’t necessarily the first time David had sent for Bathsheba and removed her from her home and brought her under his roof.

What we also find out from our text today is that it wasn’t too long before the pregnant Bathsheba delivered a baby. And then, II Samuel 11: 27 closes with these words, “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” God, obviously, placed the blood from the murder of Uriah on the hands of David. Our just and righteous God was “displeased,” or as the dictionary defines this word, what David did in God’s sight was “an injurious offense.”

Here’s the question that came to my mind as I read this passage of Scripture, “Would adultery and murder and polygamy and deceit be the best way to start a marriage?” As I reflected on the fact that David sent and fetched Bathsheba, I compared this action to the words expressed to husbands by John Chrysostom, “Husbands should say to their wives: ‘I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us. I place your love above all things, and nothing could be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you!’”

Somewhere between the “sent” and “fetched,” the heavenly blessing and joyful romance of the uniting of two hearts as one seemed to get lost. The reformer, Martin Luther, who freely admitted that marriage made him a kinder, gentler man, from personal experience expressed the thought that, “there is no more lovely, friendly, or charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.” It is heaven’s blessing upon a union of two people which brings lasting fulfillment or as one person noted, “Don’t look around for a life partner, look up! Any other choice than God’s will mean disaster.”

I love these words penned by Margaret Winthrop, in a letter to her husband, John: “I have many reasons to make me love thee, whereof I will name two, first because thou lovest God, and secondly because that thou lovest me.” This is the solid foundation for a marriage which is showered with heaven’s blessings and brings joy to those who walk under a heavenly umbrella of love.

“The fulfillment of marriage is that joy in which each lover’s true being is flowering because its growth is being welcomed and unconsciously encouraged by the other in the infinite series of daily decisions which is their life together.”

Neville Ward

AFFIRMATION

For A Marriage

“O God, who out of all the world hast let us find one another and learn together the meaning of love, let us never fail to hold love precious. Let the flame of it never grow dim but burn in our hearts as an unwavering devotion and shine through our eyes in gentleness and understanding. As the road of life we walk together lengthens, forbid that the dust of it should ever drift into our souls. Help us to have the sense to climb high places of memory and imagination, so that we may remember the beauty that lies behind us and believe in the beauty that lies before. Make us sure that romance does not depend on time or place but that daily it may be renewed in the recognition of those larger possibilities which love itself creates. Teach us to remember the little courtesies, to be swift to speak the grateful and the happy word, to believe rejoicingly in each other’s best, and to face all life bravely because we face it with united hearts. So may whatever spot of earth thou givest us to dwell in be as a garden in which all sweet and lovely things may grow; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

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My book, When A Woman Meets Jesus, is available wherever books are sold and on the internet at www.amazon.com, and www.Christianbook.com, or by calling toll-free, 1-800-Christian. You may also call Transformation Garden at 480-281-1508.